Home Forums Reloading Bullet Casting .224 Rifle Bullet

Anyone have any recommendations for a .224 caliber bullet for a .220 Swift, .223 Remington, etc?

Edwin

Are you asking about cast bullets for use at velocities typical for those cartridges with jacketed bullets? If so, good luck!

If not, what are you looking to do?

I’m looking for recommendations on a mold to cast a .224 caliber bullet with. A mold that someone might have experience with. I realize that lead bullets cannot be driven as fast as a jacketed bullet.

Only one I have for a .22 bore is the Lyman 225438. 44gr they say, shoots well in the Hornet.

I’m going to buy that Lyman 225438 for the .22 Hornet. For my .223 and Swift, I’m leaning towards the Saeco 221.

Another thread here, 'dinking with the lead pot'. Fella is getting good results in the 3K fps realm.

At first I thought your post said, “Drinking with the lead pot”! Lol Thanks, I’ll go check it out.

Sometimes a guy has to make do with the company he's got.

I hear you!

LBT 55gr. Spitzer, gas checked and .225 diameter with wheelweight metal; sorry, I don't have one and haven't used that particular bullet, but if looking for one with the two cartridges you describe, that's what I would have cut. It's listed in their latest catalog.

I use a 48gr. LBT LFN .225 gas check for my slow twisted stuff (1-16/1-14) cartridges. It's not in the catalog and I don't know if he cuts the all out custom stuff anymore. I'm assuming these are both std. twist guns, as in 1-14 and 1-12?
I've ran that 48 and a 70 gr. NEI design to around 2,900 fps. with consistent groups under 1 inch. The 48 I've run out of the Hornet with 5 shot groups around the half inch mark. The 70 I've ran from a 1-9 222 Magnum at about 3/4 five shot groups.

You'll want a.227 (for lubing and mildly seating a gas check) and .225 die to size nose first and to concentrically swage on the gas check; accuracy won't happen without doing so. Same for hardness. 22's pitched fast need heat treated wheelweight metal as hard as you can make them, which is another reason for the gas check: it makes it possible to get speed and accuracy.

If you're just looking for 22Mag level stuff, it's still going to be as labor intensive, if you want any kind of accuracy, but the check can be ditched as long as you're still using hard metal around throat diameter. Another option for this level might be unsized bullets powder coated. I've never used that method with .22's, since I'm set up and have the bells and whistles to just run sized, lubed and checked stuff.

Powder coat at 22 Mag levels should allow using a plain base, not sizing eliminates the pitfalls of bending good bullets and std. hardball alloy will be hard without the annealing process making it softer, as wheelweights are prone to.

What he says rings true. I personally have never danced at high velocity with .22 cast bullets. Never felt the need to as that's why God gave us jacketed bullets. I have however experimented plenty with soft alloys and enjoy accuracy nirvana at lower velocities, without having to employ the arcane knowledge and rituals that allow accuracy at high .22 velocity.

All the mold manufacturers make .22 molds that would be suitable for your purposes. Just be aware that it's the length not weight of a bullet that determines stability out of a relatively slow twist barrel. Another consideration is to do a chamber cast to determine the throat diameter and configuration, To simply pick a diameter out of the air and size to that is just a crapshoot if gilt-edged accuracy is the goal. Size to throat diameter and ignore groove diameter is the protocol long established by the cast shooting cognizenti. Sizing to throat diameter will also help minimize leading (by sealing the powder gasses in from the git-go), and also permits softer alloys than is generally considered necessary for higher velocity. Lube quality is critical also, as is bore condition. If 2000fps or less is satisfying to you, and you've met all the above criteria, then simple unhardened wheel weight alloy is plenty hard (and a heckuva lot cheaper than hard alloys). Achieve that and then concentrate on the stuff that really matters- cartridge concentricity, powder charges, and basic shooting techniques, etc.- and you'll leave the range to go home with a big grin on your face.

For punching paper it really doesn't matter what velocity the bullet is traveling as long as it flies true and has enough velocity to pass through the paper.

Thanks for the advice.

if you need 22 cal GC's I have some for sale.

What you got Mr. blammer?

Edwin, I've used the 55gr Lee bullet molds (2 different designs) in .223 Rem. One of them has a pretty blunt flat nose that seems well suited to short range accuracy but has some potential for feed issues in some guns. The other design is a longer flat nose that seems to work well enough. I used them with powder coating and cast them hard (heat treated); those could be pushed as fast as jacketed bullets with no concern of leading. However I found they were fairly sensitive to getting all the details just right compared to larger cast bullets or .224 jacketed bullets, so I haven't spent much more time on them.

If I were to tackle cast .224 bullets more seriously for high velocity use I'd use a design with no lube grooves, and powder coat them of course. I think some of the accuracy issues I encountered at high velocity were due to the grooves collapsing under pressure, but have not spent the time to confirm that.

Keep the lube grooves, even with powder coating....

Think Barnes Xs versus the XLCs versus the TSX, and how accuracy has gotten better with those products.

There was a significant test in The Fouling Shot regarding grooved versus solid configuration as well.

I'd also steer you away from the LEE moulds, unless of course you aren't very serious and want as many roadblocks to success as one could possibly hope for.

I'm not a novice, so I guess I detest them at best. Having a small pile of them, I can't help but think if that's what I started with I would have pursued the hobby to the degree that I have.

If you are serious, don't waste your time or money on novelties. Spend the coin and make things easy, right out of the gate.

Oh brother...

Hawk have you ever actually shot any cast bullets at high pressure with empty lube grooves? Or have you ever used any coated bullets without lube grooves?

I'd be embarassed to admit if I couldn't cast well with a modern 6 cavity Lee bullet mold. But maybe you've only used their old stuff? (which were a lot lower quality)

Yes and yes. Even run zero lube in certain guns, but not in 22s.

I'd be more embarrassed to praise them as prizes when we know they arent...